What is Behind Jim Webb's PR Campaign?

It turns out that I was not the only person to receive what at first blush appeared to be pro-active outreach from Senator Jim Webb's office on DADT. It seems I was but one of several. Other recipients included field consultants and organizers on DADT in Virginia and a staff member of a progressive military families advocacy group. One can only conclude that Webb is attempting to engage in some sort of PR offensive in the hope of distracting the LGBT community from the fact that Webb is needlessly supporting delay. I summarized my view to one other blogger this way:
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I suspect that one worry that Webb and other Democrats have is the 2010 mid--terms. Glenn Nye in the 2nd District (my district) is facing a tough challenge (probably from Ken Cuccinelli want to be Scott Rigell although the primary is not until June 8th) as is the incumbent in the 5th. If progressives and LGBT voters stay home, these seats are definitely likely to be lost. Passage of ENDA and repeal of DADT before November could make for a strong turn out. Further delay and folks - like my partner and myself - may stay home come election day. We have already stopped giving money. I believe Webb is reacting to this reality.
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I certainly have no intention of allowing Webb to get away with this apparently calculated deception. I hope others will recognize that we are being played yet again. From the comments left on my post at The Bilerico Project, it looks like many are seeing through the ruse. One comment clearly notes that the writer believes that Webb is involved in a ploy to get us to support the Democrats in the mid-term elections. His response to Webb is basically as follows:
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I tell them [Congressional Democrats] "It is better to have an enemy you know you have to fight against than a supposed friend who you don't know is either going to run away or might stab you in the back". It they don't fulfill their campaign promises from 2006 and 2008,then they aren't the right people for the job. Do not let losers hold you responsible for their own failure. I only give and vote for candidates who have done specific things to move our country forward.
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The truth is that the whole "study" argument serves only to provide cover for those who want delay - which sadly, I believe includes our anything but "fierce advocate" Barack Obama. As idicated in prior posts, more than enough studies have already been done and they all support ending DADT. Moreover, a significant majority of Americans now support repeal - including some 56% of Republicans. Therefore, why the cowardly, chicken shit approach by Congressional Democrats like Jim Webb? Here are some more highlights from the Columbia study that looked at the experience of U.S. allies that have ended the ban on openly gay service members:
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As part of the coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers have fought for years alongside troops from twenty-two of the approximately twenty-four countries that allow gay servicemembers to serve openly.201 This service includes both training and combat. General Gregory S. Newbold, a vice-president at the Potomac Institute, reports that U.S. and British forces “have trained together a great deal, so that relationship is a very easy one to carry into combat."
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Importantly, no one has reported that the presence of openly gay and lesbian members of other countries’ militaries has had a negative effect on the ability of U.S. troops to serve effectively.203 For example, referring to gay soldiers under his command, Glenn Truitt, a former submarine officer and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, said "[t]he homosexual men I knew in the military were much more professional about their sexuality than the heterosexuals, if only because they had to be" to gain full acceptance.204 The ability of U.S. soldiers to serve alongside openly gay and lesbian servicemembers from other countries in the Iraq war “demonstrates that the morale and cohesion of our forces is simply not affected by
the presence of openly gay soldiers.”

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The time for studies is over. Senator Webb needs to vote to repeal DADT THIS YEAR. If not, he and other Congressional Democrats need to be ready to pay the price of gays shutting off the LGBT ATM and staying home in November. If that leads to electoral losses, Webb and those like him will have only THEMSELVES to blame.

Gay rights are There for the Taking, and Now is a Good Time to Do It.

Gerald, a reader in Melbourne, Australia, whose life parallel's my own in some respects and with whom I have corresponded from time to time, sent me an op-ed piece from The Age, Melbourne's principal newspaper, that addresses the need/opportunity for gays to seize equality rather than wait for our detractors to die off or grudgingly throw crumbs to us. The young author of the op-ed column was inspired to write the piece by the decision of former Australian Olympic swimmer, Daniel Kowalski, to come out of the closet. The subject that he addresses is relevant in the USA where we are now seeing more direct action and non-violent protests by Get=Equal and opponents of DADT. The message is that whining and staying closeted is not the answer. Coming out can be dangerous for one's career - especially in backwaters like Virginia - but the alternative is soul killing. My coming out journey has been difficult as long time readers of this blog know full well, but the reward of finally just being you, the real you, has a value beyond measure. Here are some highlights:

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I'm humbled when I read stories about those in the spotlight - most recently Daniel Kowalski - coming out. I can remember how hard it was two years ago, aged 18, to tell my family and friends that I was gay; I have no conception of how hard it must be to do it in the public eye.
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That said, I feel it's happening more and more. In the past fortnight we've also seen dozens of footballers - footballers! - tell the young, scared gay people of Australia that it's OK to be who you are.
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It is an exciting time to be gay in Australia. Not only is this probably the safest time, there's also the inescapable feeling that things continue to change for the better. Nevertheless, as a minority, we're still stuck on the cusp of full rights and freedoms in the eyes of the law, and our peers. The lack of full acceptance means young girls and boys suffer depression and even someone as successful as Kowalski can be overcome with loneliness.
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I'm not writing this because I believe I'm especially experienced or qualified to do so. In fact, I'm writing this exactly because I'm not. I'm a young, average gay kid from the outer suburbs of Melbourne who has grown up with a similar struggle to Kowalski and many, many others. I want to speak to those like me who feel we deserve more. The gay minority has the distinction of being unlike most other minorities - we do not share a common background, a common heritage or set of values. We make up the exact same proportion of every class, every race, every religion, and every nationality. We are the most eclectic minority one could imagine. We are as diverse as Australia is flat.
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I believe it's for this reason that we have found it hard to obtain equality under the law. We are mistaken into believing there is nothing that unites us besides our sexual preference. But there is one other uniting factor. . . . the thing that unites us is a simple understanding: that we are more than what most people believe we are. We are not beholden to the stereotypes. We are each and every one of us who we want to be.
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If gay people do not have their rights, it is because we are yet to take them. The civil rights champions of the '60s didn't wait for their rights to be given to them; they stood up and demanded them. We must do the same.
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We need to unite; we need more leaders such as Daniel Kowalski who unabashedly declare who they are and why that's OK; each one helps our cause. If just half the kids I see at the clubs each week turned out to a protest, we would speak with such a voice that it would drown out all opposition.
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The difficulty of coming out and living out will only be overcome when we realise our rights are there for the taking. We just need to take a chance.

Why Full Legal Equality Is Needed

I have encountered a number of straight individuals who just do not seem to "get it" as to why same sex couples need full marriage equality, not to mention full employment non-discrimination and hate crimes protections. They vapidly ask why civil unions are not enough - of course THEY would never settle for a civil uion, but they expect gays to accept what they themselves would not.

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But the real issue is far larger than marriage. As long as gays are denied full equality in marriage, lack protection from employment discrimination, are targets of bullying and abuse, and are not treated as full equal citizens, LGBT individuals receive an insidious constant message that we are inferior. This message gets internalized and too often has disasterous if not fatal results. At the same time homophobes are emboldened to engage in anti-gay conduct. All of which, of course, is precisely what the Christianists, Mormons, and Islamic hate merchants want. A story from Australia looks at the fatal consequences this whole sick reality means for gay teens who continue to kill themselves in disturbing numbers. Here are some highlights:

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Suicide attempts among lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) school students in Queensland are at disturbingly high evels, a report shows. . . . Open Doors surveyed 164 LGB students across the state, and 37 per cent of respondents said they had attempted suicide in the last 12 months, with 82 per cent considering taking their own life. The report also revealed a general attitude of fear among LGB students, with 81 per cent saying they had experienced bullying based on their sexuality.

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"Clearly current school anti-bullying measures do not adequately protect LGB students; this is providing a discriminatory educational environment for LGB students which is illegal." . . . Shaun Staunton, the chairman of a committee on homophobia in schools for the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities, said the levels of bullying in schools were extremely worrying. "These incidences of bullying are often minimised or seen as harmless, and they can have serious effects and often lead on to more serious types of abuse, so it's really important that these things are noted and treated as quite serious," he said
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[O]ne of the keys to making schools more homosexual-friendly was to educate all students that heterosexuality was ot the only definition of normal. One of the solutions he [Staunton] proposed was the promotion of homosexual role models in schools, but he conceded there were a lot of prejudices that needed to be overcome first. "To come out in a school as a teacher is to take a huge risk really, it's not just young people who can be discriminated against, teachers and other workers in schools can be discriminated against and not receive support from principals and whoever else," he said.